Luke 11:38

And when the Pharisee saw it, he marvelled that he had not first washed before dinner. AND WHEN THE PHARISEE SAW IT, HE MARVELED THAT HE HAD NOT FIRST WASHED BEFORE DINNER. See the notes at Mark 7:2....

37-54 We should all look to our hearts, that they may be cleansed and new-created; and while we attend to the great things of the law and of the gospel, we must not neglect the smallest matter God has appointed. When any wait to catch something out of our mouths, that they may insnare us, O Lord, give us thy prudence and thy patience, and disappoint their evil purposes. Furnish us with such meekness and patience that we may glory in reproaches, for Christ's sake, and that thy Holy Spirit may rest upon us....

Verse 38. _FIRST WASHED_] See Clarke on Mark 7:2....

SAW IT - Saw that he sat immediately down without washing. MARVELLED - Wondered. Was amazed. It was so unusual, and in his view so improper. HAD NOT FIRST WASHED - He wondered particularly, as he had been among a mixed multitude, and they esteemed the “touch” of such persons polluting. They never ate, therefore, without such washing. The origin of the custom of washing with so much formality “before” they partook of their meals was that they did not use, as we do, knives and forks, but used their hands only. Hence, as their hands would be often in a dish on the table, it was esteemed proper that they should be washed clean before eating. Nor was their impropriety in the thing itself, but the Pharisees made it a matter of ceremony; they placed no small part of their religion in such ceremonies; and it was right, therefore, that our Lord should take occasion to

EXPOSITION LUKE 11:1 The _Lord_'_s teaching on the_ _subject of prayer. _Again the scene is far away from Jerusalem; no special note of _time _or _place _enables us to fix the scene or date with any exactness. Somewhere in the course of the last journeyings towards Jerusalem, related especially in this Gospel, did this scene and its teaching take place. LUKE 11:1 LORD, TEACH US TO PRAY, AS JOHN ALSO TAUGHT HIS DISCIPLES. It seems as though some of his disciples—we know at this period many were with him besides the twelve—heard their Master praying. It appeared to them—no doubt, as they caught here and there a word and expression as he prayed, perhap

AND WHEN THE PHARISEE SAW IT,.... That Christ laid himself down on one of the couches and began to eat: HE MARVELLED; that so great a prophet as he was, and a man of so much religion and holiness, should show no regard to a common custom with them, and which was one of the traditions of their elders, and which they put upon a level with the commands of God. The Vulgate Latin version, and so Beza's most ancient copy, and another exemplar, read, "he began to say, thinking" (or judging) "within himself": he was "moved" at it, as the Persic version renders it; he was filled with astonishment and indignation, THAT HE HAD NOT FIRST WASHED BEFORE DINNER; especially since he had been in a crowd of people, Luke 11:29 for the Pharisees not only washed their hands, by immersing them up to the elbow before eating; but when they had been at market, or among any large n

Luke 11:14. _And he was casting out a devil, and it was dumb. And it came to pass, when the devil was gone out, the dumb spake and the people wondered. But some of them said, He casteth out devils through Beelzebub the chief of the devils._ One would hardly have thought that they could have gone to such a length as that; but when men hate Christ, there is nothing they will not say against him. It is no subject of surprise when great heresies arise, for they are the natural outcome of human enmity against Christ and his truth. People in such a state of heart will say anything; they will give utterance to thoughts that you could not have imagined would have entered any human brain; it is the enmity of the heart to Christ that produces this blasphemy of the tongue. Luke 11:16. And others,

CHAPTER 11 _ 1. The Prayer Given to the Disciples (Luke 11:1 .)_ 2. The Friend at Midnight. (Luke 11:5) 3. Encouragement to Pray. (Luke 11:11) 4. A Demon Cast Out and the Blasphemous Accusation. (Luke 11:14) 5. The Return of the Unclean Spirit. (Luke 11:23) 6. The Blessedness of Hearing the Word. (Luke 11:27) 7. The Sign of Jonas. (Luke 11:29) 8.

CONDEMNATION OF PHARISEES AND SCRIBES._ Cf._ (though the arrangement is different) Matthew 23*, where the Jerusalem setting is more suitable (perhaps Lk. wishes to make the Jerusalem discourses end with the apocalypse of Mark 13). It is strange that Jesus should offend His host, first by deed, then by word. The Pharisees emphasized outer cleanliness at the expense of inward, but on the other hand early Christian asceticism distorted the teaching and example of Jesus, and produced a crowd of unwashed saints. LUKE 11:38 reminds us of Mark 7:2. Luke 11:39. of the cup and of the platter may be an insertion from Matthew 23:25.

TEACH US TO PRAY (Luke 11:1-4)...